Preschools!
This week we toured two preschools for Falco, which seems a little nuts since he won’t start until Fall 2009, but most SF preschools have long waitlists. We are only looking at co-op preschools, which limits our choices to just a few places.
Yesterday Falco and I went to Noe Valley Nursery School. This school wasn’t at the top of my list, but it’s relatively close to our house and has an easy application and enrollment process. So, I figured we should check it out. Although we are looking for a play-based school, this one felt a little too disorganized to me. We scheduled the “tour” ahead of time, but no one was there to greet us or to give us any organized information. There is only one official teacher, the director, and the rest of the staffing is done by parents. There is not really any structure to the program at all except snack time. As soon as we got there, someone told us to just roam around, and Falco got right down into the mix with the older kids. One group was having a story time, and he ran in the middle of the circle and grabbed a book off the bookshelf, looking very proud of himself. I love how confident and outgoing he is! Anyway, I thought it was a very nice space, but I didn’t really feel very comfortable there. I’m sure Falco would do fine at that school, but since I will be very involved in his preschool too, I have to pick a place we both like.
Today all three of us went to tour Playmates Preschool in the Outer Sunset. I already had very high hopes for this one, and it definitely lived up to my expectations. All the teachers and parents were very warm and welcoming when we got there, and the administrative director was ready to give us a tour and paperwork to take home. The school has a huge outdoor place to play and two inside rooms for art, circle time, snack time, pretend play, etc. There are two teachers who plan and organize the activities, and the parent teachers are there to help and supervise. The day involves mostly free play, but there is a scheduled circle time and snack time. This school also has a Young 5 program for kids who aren’t ready to start kindergarten when they are four, which is a big draw since Falco has a late November birthday. Overall, I don’t have anything negative to say about the place! Falco jumped right in and had a lot of fun while we were there, so he gave it his seal of approval. We will apply and hope for the best. They already have a waitlist for next fall, but it’s small and hopefully Falco will get in. We only have to wait another year to find out!
